Teaching our Children

As teachers, do we not treat our students as if they were our own children? This is a question I have today. Sometimes there's a student that may be hard to love... sometimes we forget that there's such diversity in this world and we sometimes just want people to be just like us. Sometimes it is impossible or very hard to understand student actions and odd behaviors. Why is that so? We have to find the good in each and every student and build from that. We must work to crack the codes of our students... to see what makes them tick. It is hard at times to love ...but as I remember Lucy Calkins saying once at a workshop in DC..."you gotta love them and you gotta love 'em quick!" She's referring to the beginning of school and building relationships. We must develop a trusting and loving relationship with our students. We are powerful adults in their impressionable lives. Our students are with us for a huge portion of their life for that single year. The power of teachers is not to be underestimated! Powers that I never really understood until my own children were in school and experienced both positive and negative powerful effects of teachers in their lives. So... I ask myself. Who is that outlier in the classroom? Why is he such a bully, or sad, or sassy? What can I learn about him and from him? How can we build the relationships? You must touch the heart to reach the brain... they are someone's children... and they send them to US. Treat them as you would your own.

webmail portal

This is the portal or login page for our county web mail. I am trying to understand how the new Google sidewiki works. So this is just a test. And yes...!!! I use my blog to ramble, test, document, etc.

in reference to: Microsoft Outlook Web Access - Logon (view on Google Sidewiki)

Learning in Hand... the ipod touch

So another round of grants are due in a couple of days. I'm hoping to brainstorm some ideas with a teacher at one of my schools who is interested. Last grant was written on final day of school while home sick and for my old school. I gather it was partially funded. Need to follow up.

Some documentation as a resource is here.

http://learninginhand.com/ipod/touch.html

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Notes

Notes, originally uploaded by shuttered glass.

I have notes here, I have notes there... I have saved emails, post-it notes in my pocketbook. I have my moleskin journal, I have my planner book with notepages in the back. I have my Entourage lists, and tasks and calendars. I have my google docs...
Information flies from my mouth, sometimes too fast and messages full of typos, acronyms and abreviations leak out from my hands . Much information passes through my brain. I absorb information with all of my senses, to include the intuition sense! Some info stays, some connects to other notes... some simply never even connects to my life. information makes me laugh and cry. Information makes me smart. I crave to retain most information. That's why I keep Notes.
Thank you, Ryan. Your photograph inspired me.

Google's Sidewiki...whoa baby!

This will be a helpful tool for sharing with teachers and students. I'm just exploring how this might work. I could write a note...and then I need to go add a comment bubble, and see how the highlighting works. Very cool.

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

I want to learn more...

Looking at this article and wondering about blogging with students and how that might work... expecially in upper elementary.

Week of 9/15 Roundup #2

Just when you think you are managing things...it changes! Quotes, lines and words to remember from the week...

ROLES vs GOALS. What's your role, what's really our goal. "This is not an assessment event."